Shabbat Schmooze: Shema!
Shema! (Hebrew: שְׁמַע)
The Shema is said three times a day by observant Jews and sung every Shabbat during the liturgical prayers, as well as at holidays and life cycle events. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he answered with the Shema.
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31
The Simple English translation of the word means hear or listen. But, in Hebrew, hearing and obeying are essentially the same thing. So, in Hebrew, Shema is more than a call to listen-it’s a call to action.
The Shema prayer, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord is One.” was a declaration Moses gave to Israel in Deuteronomy 6 before the Jewish people entered the promised land. The Shema was a charge to the people to worship only the God of Israel amidst the surrounding pagan cultures and keep his commandments.
Have you ever heard anyone say, “You’re not listening!”? Maybe a misunderstood teenager or a frustrated spouse…or, maybe you’ve felt that way yourself.
Communication in human relationships can be complicated by selfishness, past circumstances, and unmet needs, all of which can lead to a lack of listening with understanding, creating a vicious cycle.
But there’s a key principle we can learn from the Shema that can positively impact our relationships with others and ultimately with God. Listening is following or doing and doing is listening.
When we listen with understanding and an intention to act on that understanding, we can initiate new patterns in our relationships with others. Listening becomes more than just hearing, it becomes an act of love.
“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not just hearers who deceive themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does.” James chapter 1:22-26
In Romans 5:8, it says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Messiah died for us.”
God has heard or Shema ‘d the cry of his creation and given us the gift of salvation through Messiah Yeshua. What love he has lavished on us! Through trusting that love and listening to his voice, we can find peace.
